Dr Jelena Stojković
PhD
Senior Lecturer in Critical Theory
School of Arts
Role
Dr Jelena Stojković is an art historian and critic. In the School of Arts she is running history and theory modules across BA Photography and is supporting the critical theory programme on BA and MFA Fine Art. She is also UoA32 Leader (Art and Design: History, Theory and Practice) and Convenor of the Photography Research Group in the Centre for Research in the Arts (CoRA).
Jelena holds BAs in Arabic and Japanese Language and Literature from Belgrade University, MA in Art History from SOAS, University of London and PhD in Photography from the University of Westminster. She is the author of The Impossible Avant-Garde: Surrealism and Photography in 1930s Japan (2020), winner of 'best art publication' in ICAS Book Prize 2021, and is co-editor (with Daniel Sturgis) of Women Artists and Abstract Art in Postwar Rome: Connected by Travel (2026). In 2025, she was awarded British Academy Mid Career Fellowship for her ongoing research project ILLUMINATION: Transnational Routes of Abstract Art in the Cold War.
Teaching and supervision
Modules taught
Module leader:
- The Politics and Poetics of Looking, BA Photography
- Space, Place and Culture, BA Photography
- Media, Culture and Communication, BA Photography
- Ethics, Politics, Visual Narratives, BA Photography
- Written Research Project, BA Photography
Tutor:
- Introduction to Analysis in Contemporary Art, BA Fine Art
- Independent Research, BA Fine Art
- Fine Art Theory 1: Topics in Contemporary Art, MFA Fine Art
- Fine Art Theory 2: Extended Critical Essay, MFA Fine Art
Previous roles:
- External Examiner, Fine Art Theory, Middlesex University, 2019-2023
- Course Leader for History of Photography and Photography in Japan, The Photographers' Gallery, London, 2015-2023
- Lecturer in History and Theory of Photography, Arts University Bournemouth, 2018-2020
- Associate Lecturer, University of the Arts London (BA and MA Photography, LCC; BA Fine Art Photography, Camberwell; BA Textile Design, Chelsea), 2104-2018
Supervision
PhD supervision: James Elliott, second supervisor
Research
Transnational and interdisciplinary approaches to the history and theory of modern and contemporary visual arts and cultures, with a specific focus on historical avant-gardes (surrealism and abstraction) in East Asia and Southeast Europe; History and theory of film and photography; Art criticism and curation
Recent awards:
- British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship, 2024
- Daiwa Foundation Small Grant, 2022
- British School at Rome, Balsdon Fellow, 2021
Recent projects:
- ‘Crossing Over: Women Artists, Abstraction, and Travel in Postwar Rome (1950s-1970s)’, one-day international symposium organised in partnership with the British School at Rome, 2024
- ‘Community, Memory, Archive’, artist residency for Jermaine Francis, co-organised with Dr Helene Kazan at CoRA, OBU, 2024
- ‘Thinking Japanese Photography’, curator of a two-day closing event for Daido Moriyama’s retrospective at The Photographers’ Gallery, London, 2024
- Artist residency for Hayahisa Tomiyasu, co-orgnised with Modern Culture at CoRA, OBU, 2022
Research impact
- ‘Best Art Publication’, ICAS Books Prize 2021, International Institute for Asian Studies
Further information
- 'Abstract Art by Women Artists from Former Yugoslavia', paper delivered at the Women in Abstraction symposium (online), Pompidou Centre (2021): recording
- Surrealism and Photography in 1930s Japan: The Impossible Avant-Garde, Daiwa Foundation (2020) book launch recording
Publications
Professional information
Memberships of professional bodies
- Higher Education Academy (Fellow)
- Association for Art History (Member)
- British Association for Japanese Studies (Member).
Areas of expertise
- History and Theory of Art and Photography
- Historical Avant-Gardes (Surrealism and Abstraction) in a Transnational Context
- Japanese Art and Photography
Conferences
Recent Academic Conferences
- Surrealist Literature and Art, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Literature, 2026
- ISSS Surréalismes Paris, 2024
- AAH 49, 2023
- Globalising the Avant-Garde, EAM8, Lisbon, 2022
- Women in Abstraction: Another History of Abstraction in the 20th Century, Pompidou Centre, Paris, 2021
Invited Speaker
- Hasselblad Foundation, Gothenburg, 2019
- Courtauld Institute of Art, 2019
- Goldsmiths, University of London, 2019
- Japan Society, London, 2018
- Sainsbury Centre for Visual Art, University of East Anglia, 2017
Consultancy
- Jury Member, After Nature Ulrike Crespo Photography Prize, C/O Berlin 2026
- Tutor Advisor, Blyth Art Fellowship, Arts Awards, Imperial College London, 2024-2025